The moment is finally here: this month the CELA festival tour kicks off at Hay Festival Segovia in Spain! On Saturday 22 September at 11 in the morning six duo's of emerging writers and emerging translators will talk with writer Jaime Bartolomé about their work and bridging the gaps between European makers and the public: Maurizio Amendola (Italy) and translator Paula Caballero (Spain), Lotte Lentes (The Netherlands) and translator Irene de la Torre (Spain), João Valente (Portugal) and translator Lara Carrión (Spain) as well as Livia Franchini (Italy) and translator Paula Caballero, Catalin Pavel (Romania) and translator Corina Oproae (Spain) and Rebekka de Wit (Belgium) and translator Guillermo Briz (Spain). All of them will also read at the grand opening of the festival on Friday 21 September.

That's not all: in the week leading up to the festival opening, three Spanish CELA-writers are giving Creative Writing workshops. On Tuesday 18 SeptemberMariana Torres will explore the role of play and the inner child within when it comes to artistic and creative activities. On Wednesday 19 SeptemberMatías Candeira will lead 'I have something to tell you', a workshop in which you can learn to look differently and build good stories with very little. Finally, on Friday 21 SeptemberRoberto Osa will close the workshop series with 'The tools of a writer', a workshop in which he will explain different tools and techniques that writers can use to create fiction.

CELA (Connecting Emerging Literary Artists) offers a European context to a new generation of writers, translators and literary professionals. Starting in September 2018, the CELA artists take stages all across Europe to sit side by side on stage, revealing the joys, and sorrows, of telling the same story differently. After Hay Festival Segovia, different duo’s take the stage at Pisa Book Festival (Italy), Wintertuinfestival (The Netherlands), Tinto no Branco - Festival Literario (Portugal), Passa Porta Festival (Belgium), Lev - Literature em Viagem (Portugal) and Book Fest (Romania).